1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of accounting and financial systems, and more particularly, in one exemplary embodiment, to providing normalization of disparate charts of accounts within a system.
2. Description of Related Technology
In order to keep track of various aspects of a business's finances and overall health, most companies use some sort of financial accounting software. Charts of accounts (CoA) are files that are used in financial accounting software and include a listing of accounts that a business uses to define each class of items for which money is either spent or received. A CoA is often locally modified by personnel in order to meet particular needs of a location. In most cases, modifying the CoA results in the software being unable to process the transmission of the financial data as the format may no longer align with what is expected by the receiving party. Because of this, business owners, and in particular franchisors needing financial data from their franchisees, have a strong desire for all of their franchisees to send and receive data in the same format. The result of properly formatted data is that the information can be processed and accurate metrics obtained. Accordingly, the franchisor will attempt to enforce the use of a standardized chart of accounts (SCoA) by their franchisees in order to facilitate the sharing of financial information among the various parties.
As the control of financial software moves from a franchisor's power to the franchisees, it is more likely that changes to the CoA will occur, causing problems with the transfer of data between the parties. One common example of financial accounting software is QuickBooks™ by Intuit, Inc. Currently, over ninety percent (90%) of all small businesses (SMB) use QuickBooks™ for their accounting system. At present, there is no known way to “lock down” a CoA in QuickBooks™ (QB), or in similar known financial accounting software products on the market today. A user with Administrative (Admin) or Ownership type permissions may enter the CoA file and add, delete, or modify the CoA at will. The ability of personnel to modify the CoA file can result in the CoA being in a constant state of flux in that the slightest change, for example a change in the name of an account, can change how all transactions in that account are reported as well as slotted. As a result, syncing QB data, financial data, or any other kind of data between various parties becomes problematic, if not impossible.
In existing implementations, a point of sale (POS) that auto-populates transactions into a financial accounting system file (such as a QB file) must have a corresponding QB file with a matching account in the CoA, in order to be able to “push” the transaction data into the correct account. Because users are able to change accounts and numbers by simply clicking the account name and appending or deleting characters, it is not uncommon for these types of changes to occur. The result of the changes frequently leads to transactions not being correctly populated during attempted transfers.
Restricting access to QB or other financial accounting software files at the franchisee level may help to minimize modifications and synchronizing failures, but experience has shown that doing so is generally not feasible for most businesses. It is often thought that a user can be denied access to their own QB file for reporting purposes, and that alternative methods will somehow provide sufficient accounting interfaces for the franchisee. However, franchisees must be able to prepare their taxes, and their CPA must have the actual QB file in order to complete preparation of the taxes. These needs alone require allowing the franchisee administrative access to the file. Additionally, franchisees may use a variety of payroll tools, some of which are provided by Intuit, Inc. from within QB, and would be necessary for the franchisee to access.
Merchant services, owner acquisitions and loans, tax audits by the IRS, and a plethora of other day-to-day operational elements are additional reasons why the franchisee must have access to the QB file.
Finally, the franchisee CoA files will typically not match the SCoA at various points during the current year or quarter for a number of reasons.
In existing systems, even one modification, such as a modification of Income accounts, may result in the POS data push failing.
In view of the challenges described above for normalizing data files using existing means, new schemes are needed for ensuring files can more easily be transferred or synched within an organization, with the least amount of manual intervention as possible. Specifically, improved methods and apparatus are needed for providing normalization of disparate chart of accounts within systems.